Facebook on Wednesday apologized for
forcing drag queens and others to use their real names on the social
network.

According to Gawker.com blog Valleywag,
company representatives issued the apology at a meeting held at the
office of San Francisco Supervisor David Campos.

“On Wednesday morning, Supervisor
David Campos, the lead negotiator for a broad coalition of activists
including drag queens, transgender people, performers, survivors of
abuse and stalking, political dissidents and privacy activists
announced a successful outcome to conversations with Facebook
regarding their real name policy,” Campos' office said in a press
release.

Facebook became the target of those
groups after it launched a crackdown against people using names other
than their legal names, in some cases locking them out of their
accounts. The social network said at the time that the policy “helps
keep our community safe.”

But SFist, which broke the story, noted
several problems with the policy.

“In the case of the [Sisters of
Perpetual Indulgence], these are not necessarily performers with fan
bases but more a community of people who identify by these alternate
names in public more often than not. In the case of drag queens, many
already have fan pages but have found those to be less reliable ways
of promoting themselves than friend networks, which in most cases
they've taken years to build,” the site wrote.

“Also there are the cases of people
who have chosen to use alternate names, or pseudonyms, on Facebook
precisely because they don't want to be found there by employers,
family members, or nosey journalists.”

Sister Roma, a queer nun with the
Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, was among those outraged by the
policy.

“I want my friends to find me,”
Sister
Roma told SFist. “I detest the idea of having a fan page. I'm
not fucking Britney Spears. I have friends, not fans.”

Seattle Gay Scene described Fan
Pages as “the most useless thing on Facebook.”

“Unless you have thousands of dollars
to shell out for ads to get your page boosted for views, Like Page
posts get lost among a sea of Instagrams and viral trends,” the
site wrote

“The drag queens spoke and Facebook
listened!” Campos said. “Facebook agreed that the real names
policy is flawed and has unintentionally hurt members of our
community. We have their commitment that they will be making
substantive changes soon and we have every reason to believe them.
Facebook apologized to the community and has committed to removing
any language requiring that you use your legal name. They're working
on technical solutions to make sure that nobody has their name
changed unless they want it to be changed and to help better
differentiate between fake profiles and authentic ones.”